________________
JAINA DOCTRINE
33
none.
of progress in the householder's life is a steady improvement in respect of mental purity and goodness. The aspirant must love all and hate He must practise the virtues of service and self-denial, and carry them to perfection. By constantly examining his inner mental conditions and states he must rid himself of all evil tendencies and traits of character that are an hindrance on the Path. In this way he will be speedily qualified for saintship. Thereafter is the uphill struggle to get rid of the matter of the body altogether, by uprooting all desires for the things of the world. But though uphill it is the only path that leads to the coveted heights of Glorification, and Godhood and Wholeness, and no soul that really understood its own real nature was ever deterred by the severity of disciplinary conduct from seeking the Perfection of Gods!
As regards the Jaina ritual, the saints do not worship any one, except their own souls in pure Self-contemplation, though they offer obeisance to the Tirthamkaras, till they themselves attain to perfection. The householder worships the Holy Tirthamkara with eight kinds of things, which are symbolical of different conceptions and renunciation. He knows that the Gods whom he worships do not require anything from him, not even the devotion of a devotee; for They are full and perfect in Their Wholeness and Spiritual Freedom. The Jaina worship is a form not of idolatry, therefore, but essentially one of idealatry, as I pointed out elsewhere. Nothing is ever offered to Gods, to obtain any boons from them. They are the model of Perfection for unemancipated beings, having been men themselves at one time in the past. Besides them Jainism recognizes the claims of no other god or goddess to divinity.
Such is the teaching of Jainism. And I should like to add that the true teaching of every rational religion is identically the same. I have no time to show you how this statement holds good with respect to different religions which are flourishing in our midst today; but I may point out that this matter has been made clear in some of my books that deal with comparative religion, e.g., the Key of Knowledge, and the Confluence of Opposites. Recently I have also composed a small pamphlet entitled Glimpses of a Hidden Science in the Original Christian Teachings that will be found to demonstrate this statement
3
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
